Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

{{short description|1898–1912 political party in the Russian Empire}} {{Other uses|Social Democratic Party of Russia (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox political party | colorcode = {{party color|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party}} | name = Russian Social Democratic Labour Party | native_name = {{lang|ru|Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия}} | abbr = RSDLP (English)<br>{{lang|ru|РСДРП}} (Russian) | leader1_title = Leaders | leader1_name = {{ubl|class=nowrap |[[Vladimir Lenin]]{{efn|Leader of the [[Bolshevik]] [[Factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|faction]].}} |[[Julius Martov]]{{efn|Leader of the [[Menshevik]] [[Factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|faction]].}} }} | leader2_title = {{nowrap|Central Committee}} | leader2_name = [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party#Congresses|Variable]] | leader5_title = [[1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Founders]] | leader5_name = {{ubl|class=nowrap |<ref name="1stcongress">{{cite web | title = Центральный Комитет, избранный I-м съездом РСДРП 3(15).3.1898, члены | trans-title = Central Committee elected by the First Congress of the RSDLP 3(15).3.1898, members | publisher = Knowbysight.info | accessdate = 21 May 2022 |archive-date=28 May 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220528125136/http://www.knowbysight.info/2_KPSS/04010.asp | url = http://www.knowbysight.info/2_KPSS/04010.asp }}</ref><ref name="2ndcongress">{{cite web | title = Центральный Комитет, избранный II-м съездом РСДРП 10(23).8.1903, члены | trans-title = Central Committee elected by the II Congress of the RSDLP 10(23).8.1903, members | publisher = Knowbysight.info | accessdate = 28 May 2022 |archive-date=28 May 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220528120325/http://www.knowbysight.info/2_KPSS/04013.asp | url = http://www.knowbysight.info/2_KPSS/04013.asp }}</ref> |{{ill|Stepan Radchenko|ru|Радченко, Степан Иванович}} |[[Arkadi Kremer]] |[[Boris Eidelmann]] |{{ill|Alexander Vannovsky|ru|Ванновский, Александр Алексеевич}} |{{ill|Pavlo Tuchapskyi|ru|Тучапский, Павел Лукич}} |{{ill|Natan Vigdorchik|ru|Вигдорчик, Натан Абрамович}} |{{ill|Kazimierz Petrusewicz Sr.|ru|Петрусевич, Казимир Адамович|lt=Kazimierz Petrusewicz}} |{{ill|Abram Mutnik|ru|Мутник, Абрам Яковлевич}} |[[Shmuel Katz (revolutionary)|Shmuel Katz]] }} | foundation = {{nowrap|{{start date and age|1898|3|df=yes}}}} | dissolved = {{end date and age|1912}}{{efn|The party split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903, with the two factions forming separate parties in 1912. However, joint party organisations continued to exist until 1917.<ref name=bre>{{cite web|url=https://old.bigenc.ru/text/4245609|title=Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия|website=old.bigenc.ru| last = Kulikov| first =Sergey Viktorovich|publisher=[[Big Russian Encyclopedia]]|date=2015|access-date=18 April 2025|archive-date=26 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126023449/https://old.bigenc.ru/text/3515534|url-status=live}}</ref>}} | merger = {{ubl|class=nowrap |[[League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class|LSEWC]]{{refn|{{lang-rus|Союз борьбы за освобождение рабочего класса (СБОРК)|r=Sojuz borjby za osvoboždenije rabočego klassa (SBORK)|p=sɐˈjuz‿bɐrʲˈbɨ zə‿ɐsvəbɐʐˈdʲenʲɪje rɐˈbotɕɪvə ˈklasə (ˈzbork)}}}} |[[Emancipation of Labour]] |[[General Jewish Labour Bund|Jewish Labour Bund]] }} | successor = {{ubl|class=nowrap |[[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|RSDLP (Bolsheviks)]] |[[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks)|RSDLP (Mensheviks)]]<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/bolshevik-menshevik-split |title= The Bolshevik-Menshevik Split |first= Richard |last= Cavendish |publisher= [[History Today]] |date= 11 November 2003 |access-date= 13 September 2017}}</ref> }} | newspaper = ''[[Iskra]]'' (official organ)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wildman |first=Allan K. |date=1964 |title=Lenin's Battle with Kustarnichestvo: The Iskra Organization in Russia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2492685 |journal=Slavic Review |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=479–503 |doi=10.2307/2492685 |jstor=2492685|url-access=subscription }}</ref> | position = [[Left-wing]] to [[far-left]] | ideology = {{ubl|class=nowrap |[[Socialism]] |[[Marxism]]<ref name=bre>{{cite web|url=https://old.bigenc.ru/domestic_history/text/4245609|title=Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия|website=old.bigenc.ru| last = Kulikov| first =Sergey Viktorovich|publisher=[[Big Russian Encyclopedia]]|date=2015|access-date=18 April 2025|archive-date=26 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126023449/https://old.bigenc.ru/domestic_history/text/3515534|url-status=live}}</ref> |'''[[Factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Factions]]''': |[[bolsheviks|Bolshevism]] |[[Menshevism]] }} | international = [[Second International|Socialist International]]<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |title=Second International |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-International |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2025-04-20}}</ref> | colours = {{color box|{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}|border=silver}} [[Political_colour#Red|Red]] (official)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design|last1=Adams|first1=Sean|last2=Morioka|first2=Noreen|last3=Stone|first3=Terry Lee|date=2006|publisher=Rockport Publishers|isbn=159253192X|location=Gloucester, Mass.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86 86]|oclc=60393965|url=https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86}}</ref> | anthem = "[[The_Internationale#Russian_version_used_in_the_Soviet_Union|Интернациона́л]]"{{refn|{{langx|ru|Интернациона́л|Internatsionál}}}}<br />{{Audio|Toscanini - The Internationale (Russian version, 1944).flac|{{lit|The Internationale}}}} | flag = [[File:Socialist red flag.svg|200px|border]] | country = Russia | seats1_title = Most [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|MPs]] ([[January 1907 Russian legislative election|1907]]) | seats1 = {{composition bar|65|518|hex={{party color|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party}}|per=1}} }}

The '''Russian Social Democratic Labour Party''' ('''RSDLP'''),{{efn|{{Lang-rus|Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия (РСДРП)|r=Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)|p=rɐˈsʲijskəjə sətsɨˌal‿dʲɪməkrɐˈtʲitɕɪskəjə rɐˈbotɕɪjə ˈpartʲɪjə (ˈɛr‿ɛz‿dɛ‿ɛr‿pɛ)}}}} also known as the '''Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party''' ('''RSDWP''') or the '''Russian Social Democratic Party''' ('''RSDP'''), was a [[socialist]] political party founded in 1898 in [[Minsk]], [[Russian Empire]]. The party emerged from the merger of various [[Marxist]] groups operating under [[Tsarist autocracy|Tsarist]] repression, and was dedicated to the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a [[socialist state]] based on the revolutionary leadership of the Russian [[proletariat]].

The RSDLP's formative years were marked by ideological and strategic disputes culminating at its [[2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Second Congress]] in 1903, where the party split into two main factions: the [[Bolsheviks]], led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], who advocated a tightly organized [[Vanguardism|vanguard]] of professional revolutionaries; and the [[Mensheviks]], led by [[Julius Martov]] and others, who favored a more moderate, broad-based model. During and in the years after the [[Russian Revolution of 1905|1905 Revolution]], the RSDLP operated both legally and underground, publishing newspapers, infiltrating trade unions, and agitating among industrial workers.

Despite repeated attempts at reunification, the rift between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks widened, resulting in a formal split in 1912. The [[February Revolution]] of 1917 saw some Mensheviks support cooperation with the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]], which the Bolsheviks opposed in favor of "all power to the [[Soviet (council)|soviets]]". After the Bolsheviks seized power in the [[October Revolution]] later that year, the RSDLP was effectively dissolved. In 1918, the Bolshevik party formally renamed itself the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]], which later became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

== History == === Origins and early activities === The RSDLP was not the first Russian [[Marxist]] group; the [[Emancipation of Labour]] group had been formed in 1883. The RSDLP was created to oppose the revolutionary populism of the [[Narodniks]], which was later represented by the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]] (SRs). The RSDLP was formed at [[1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|an underground conference in Minsk in March 1898]]. There were nine delegates: from the [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Jewish Labour Bund]], and from the [[Rabochaya Gazeta|''Robochaya Gazeta'']] ("Workers' Newspaper") in [[Kiev]], both formed a year earlier in 1897; and the [[League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]. Some additional social democrats from Moscow and [[Yekaterinburg]] also attended. The RSDLP program was based strictly on the theories of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]. Specifically, that despite Russia's agrarian nature at the time, the true revolutionary potential lay with the industrial working class. At this time, there were three million Russian industrial workers, just 3% of the population. The RSDLP was illegal for most of its existence. Within a month after the Congress, five of the nine delegates were arrested by the ''[[Okhrana]]'' (imperial secret police).<ref>Ascher, Abraham. ''The Revolution of 1905''. p. 4.</ref>

Members of the RSDLP became popularly labelled as ''esdeki'' ({{langx |ru| эсдеки}}, singular: {{langx |ru| эсдек | translit = esdek}}) - from the Russian-language names of the initial letters S ({{langx |ru| С}}) and D ({{langx |ru| Д}}) standing for "Social Democrats" ({{langx |ru|социал-демократы | translit = sotsial-demokraty}}).<ref> {{cite book |last1=Minin |first1=Oleg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-hC3EAAAQBAJ |title=Images of Otherness in Russia, 1547–1917 |date=25 April 2023 |publisher=Academic Studies Press |isbn=9798887191485 |editor-last1=Parppei |editor-first1=Kati |series=Imperial Encounters in Russian History |publication-place=Boston, Massachusetts |page= |chapter=The Self and the Other: Representations of the Monarchist Foe and Ally in the Satirical Press of the Russian Right (1906–1908) |quote=The Marxist-oriented Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party and the closely associated Jewish Bund were habitually referred to [...] as ''esdeki'' (Social Democrats) and ''bundisty'' (members of the Bund). |access-date=30 August 2024 |editor-last2=Rakhimzianov |editor-first2=Bulat}} </ref>

Before the [[2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|2nd Party Congress]] in 1903, a young intellectual named Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known by his pseudonym, [[Vladimir Lenin]]) joined the party. In 1902, he had published ''[[What Is To Be Done?]]'', outlining his view of the party's proper task and methodology: to form "the vanguard of the [[proletariat]]". He advocated a disciplined, centralized party of committed activists who would fuse the underground struggle for political freedom with the class struggle of the proletariat.<ref name="lih1">{{cite book|last=Lih|first=Lars|title=Lenin Rediscovered: What is to be Done? in Context|year=2005|publisher=Brill Academic Publishers|isbn=978-90-04-13120-0}}</ref>

=== Internal divisions === In 1903, the [[2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|2nd Party Congress]] met in exile in [[Brussels]] to attempt to create a united force. However, after unprecedented attention from the Belgian authorities the Congress moved to London, meeting on 11 August in [[Charlotte Street]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Keith|last=Scholey|title=The Communist Club|url=http://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/text/communistclub.rtf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101103311/http://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/text/communistclub.rtf |archive-date=2018-11-01}}</ref> At the Congress, the party split into two irreconcilable factions on 17 November: the [[Bolsheviks]] (derived from ''bolshinstvo''—Russian for "majority"), headed by Lenin; and the [[Mensheviks]] (from ''menshinstvo''—Russian for "minority"), headed by [[Julius Martov]]. Confusingly, the Mensheviks were actually the larger faction, but the names Menshevik and Bolshevik were taken from a vote held at the 1903 Party Congress for the editorial board of the party newspaper, ''[[Iskra]]'' (''Spark''), with the Bolsheviks being the majority and the Mensheviks being the minority.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Vladimir Lenin {{!}} Biography, Facts, & Ideology {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Lenin |access-date=2022-11-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> These were the names used by the factions for the rest of the party Congress and these are the names retained after the split at the 1903 Congress.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Stephen F. |title=The Making of Modern Georgia, 1918–2012: the First Georgian Republic and its Successors. |date=2014 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=978-1-317-81593-8 |location=Hoboken |oclc=881415856}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Getzler |first=Israel |title=Martov: a political biography of a Russian social democrat |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-05073-1 |location=Cambridge |page=60 |oclc=224176363}}</ref> Lenin's faction later ended up in the minority and remained smaller than the Mensheviks until the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref name=":0" />

A central issue at the Congress was the question of the definition of party membership. Martov proposed that a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was "one who accepts its program and supports it both materially and by regular cooperation under the leadership of one of its organizations."<ref name = "lenin-account">{{cite book|date= 1967|orig-date= 1903|chapter= Рассказ о II съезде РСДРП|chapter-url= https://www.marxists.org/russkij/lenin/1903/09/a.htm|last= Lenin|first= V. I.|title= В. И. Ленин – Полное собрание сочинений|volume= 8|page= 13}}, English translation in {{cite book|date= 1977|translator= Fineberg, Abraham|chapter= Account of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.|chapter-url= https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/sep/15a.htm|title= V. I. Lenin – Collected Works|volume= 7|pages= 27–28}}</ref><ref name = "plb">{{cite book |last= Le Blanc|first= Paul|author-link= Paul Le Blanc (historian)|date= 2023|title= Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution|chapter= 2. Theory, Organization, Action (1901—05)|location= London|publisher= [[Pluto Press]]}}</ref> On the other hand, Lenin proposed a stricter definition that a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was "one who recognizes the Party's program and supports it by material means and by personal participation in one of the Party's organizations".<ref name = "lenin-account"/><ref name = "plb"/> Martov's big tent definition of party membership initially won the vote 28–23.<ref name = "lenin-account"/> However, his majority was short-lived, given the exit from the party, for separate reasons, of its Bundist and Economist members who had supported his definition. That left in the majority those in favour of Lenin's definition of party members as, in effect, professional revolutionaries- centrally directed, tightly disciplined, and therefore capable of operating effectively in the tsarist police state. From this was derived the faction names: "Majority" ("Bolshevik") and "Minority" ("Menshevik").<ref name = "plb"/>

Despite a number of attempts at reunification, the split proved permanent. As time passed, ideological differences emerged in addition to the original organizational differences. The main difference that emerged in the years after 1903 was that the Bolsheviks believed that only the workers, backed up by the peasantry, could carry out the bourgeois-democratic revolutionary tasks in Russia, which would then provide incentive to socialist revolution in Germany, France and Britain, while the Mensheviks believed that the workers and peasants must seek out enlightened people from the liberal bourgeoisie to carry out the bourgeois-democratic revolutionary tasks in Russia. The two warring factions both agreed that the coming revolution would be "bourgeois-democratic" within Russia, but while the Mensheviks viewed the liberals as the main ally in this task, the Bolsheviks opted for an alliance with the peasantry as the only way to carry out the bourgeois-democratic revolutionary tasks while defending the interests of the working class. Essentially, the difference was that the Bolsheviks considered that in Russia the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution would have to be carried out without the participation of the [[bourgeoisie]]. The [[3rd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|3rd Party Congress]] was held separately by the Bolsheviks.

The [[4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|4th Party Congress]] was held in [[Stockholm]], Sweden, in 1906, and saw a formal reunification of the two factions (with the Mensheviks in the majority), but the discrepancies between Bolshevik and Menshevik views became particularly clear during the proceedings.

The [[5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|5th Party Congress]] was held in London, England, in 1907. It consolidated the supremacy of the Bolshevik faction and debated strategy for communist revolution in Russia.

A subfaction led by [[Alexander Bogdanov]] called [[Vpered]] would split away from the Bolsheviks in 1909.

=== 1912 split === [[File:2nd Duma. Social-democrats.jpg|thumb|Elected Social Democrats in the [[January 1907 Russian legislative election|Second Duma election of 1907]]]] The Social Democrats (SDs) boycotted elections to the [[First Duma]] (April–July 1906), but they were represented in the [[Second Duma]] (February–June 1907). With the SRs, they held 83 seats. The Second Duma was dissolved on the pretext of the discovery of an SD conspiracy to subvert the army. Under new electoral laws, the SD presence in the [[Third Duma]] (1907–1912) was reduced to 19. From the [[Fourth Duma]] (1912–1917), the SDs were finally and fully split. The Mensheviks had seven members in the Duma and the Bolsheviks had six, including [[Roman Malinovsky]], who was later uncovered as an [[Okhrana]] agent.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/badayev/1929/duma/ch13.html|title=Badayev: The Bolsheviks in the Tsarist Duma|first=Aleksey|last=Badayev|website=marxists.org|access-date=24 June 2021}}</ref>

In the years of Tsarist repression that followed the defeat of the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], both the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions faced splits, causing further splits in the RSDLP, which manifested themselves from late 1908 and the years immediately following. The Mensheviks split into the "Pro-Party Mensheviks" led by [[Georgi Plekhanov]], who wished to maintain illegal underground work as well as legal work; and the "Liquidators", whose most prominent advocates were [[Pavel Axelrod]], [[Fyodor Dan]], [[Nikolai Aleksandrovich Rozhkov]] and [[Nikolay Chkheidze]], who wished to pursue purely legal activities and who now repudiated illegal and underground work.<ref name="Woods">{{cite book|last=Woods|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Woods (political theorist)|title=Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution|publisher=Wellred Books|year=1999|isbn=9780091932862|pages=321–355}}</ref> The Menshevik Julius Martov was formally also considered a liquidator, partly because most of his closest political allies were part of the liquidator subfaction.<ref name="Woods"/>

The Bolsheviks split three ways into the Proletary group led by Lenin, [[Grigory Zinoviev]] and [[Lev Kamenev]], who waged a fierce struggle against the liquidators, ultimatists and recallists; the Ultimatist group led by [[Grigory Aleksinsky]], who wished to issue ultimatums to the RSDLP Duma deputies to follow the party line or to resign immediately; and the Recallist group led by [[Alexander Bogdanov]] and [[Anatoly Lunacharsky]] with support from [[Maxim Gorky]], who called for the immediate recall of all RSDLP Duma deputies and a boycott of all legal work by the RSDLP, in favour of increased radical underground and illegal work.<ref name="Woods"/>

There was also a non-faction group led by [[Leon Trotsky]], who denounced all the "factionalism" in the RSDLP, pushed for "unity" in the party and focused more strongly on the problems of Russian workers and peasants on the ground.

In January 1912, Lenin's Proletary Bolshevik group called a conference in Prague and expelled the liquidators, ultimatists and recallists from the RSDLP, which officially led to the creation of a separate party, known as the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)]], while the Mensheviks continued their activities establishing the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks)]]. In August 1912, Trotsky's group tried to reunite all the RSDLP factions into the same party at a conference in Vienna, but he was largely rebuffed by the Bolsheviks.<ref name="Woods"/> The Bolsheviks seized power during the [[October Revolution]] in 1917 when all political power was transferred to the [[Soviet (council)|soviets]] and in 1918 changed their name to the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party]]. They later banned the Mensheviks after the [[Kronstadt rebellion]] of 1921.

The [[Mezhraiontsy|''Interdistrictites'']], known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Internationalists), emerged in 1913 as another faction originating from the RSDLP.

== Party branches == ===Estonia=== In 1902, the [[Tallinn]] organization of the RSDLP was founded, which in 1904 was converted into the Tallinn Committee of the party. In November, a parallel (that is, also directly under the CC of RSDLP) [[Narva]] Committee was created. Amongst other radicals, the Estonian RSDLP cadres were active in the 1905 Revolution. At the conference of the Estonian RSDLP organizations in [[Terijoki]], Finland in March 1907, the Bolshevik supporters came into serious conflict with the Mensheviks.

===Livonia=== At the 4th (Unity) Congress of the RSDLP in 1906, the [[Communist Party of Latvia|Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party]] entered the RSDLP as a territorial organisation. After the Congress, its name was changed Social-Democracy of the Latvian Territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/nov/07.htm|title=Lenin: The Second Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. (First All-Russia Conference)|first=Vladimir|last=Lenin|website=marxists.org|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>

== Congresses == {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ {{sronly|List of congresses of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from 1898–1907.}} ! scope="col" colspan=2 | Congress ! scope="col" | Location ! scope="col" | Delegates{{efn|Also known as representatives.}} ! scope="col" | Elected to Central Committee ! colspan=2 | Majority Faction |- style="height:6em;" ! scope="row" | [[1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|1st]] | {{dts|13 March}}<br/>–<br/>{{dts|15 March 1898}} | [[Minsk]], [[Russian Empire]] | 9 | * Stepan Radchenko * [[Boris Eidelmann]] * [[Arkadi Kremer]] | scope="col" style="background-color: {{party color|Independent (politician)}}; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"| | {{n/a}} |- style="height:6em;" ! scope="row" | [[2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|2nd]] | {{dts|30 July}}<br/>–<br/>{{dts|23 August 1903}} | {{hlist|[[Brussels]], Belgium{{efn|Thirteen sessions of the second congress took place in Brussels before it was moved to London.}}|[[London]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]}} | 51 | * [[Gleb Krzhizhanovsky]] * Friedrich Lengnik * Vladimir Noskov | scope="col" style="background-color:green; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"| | [[Mensheviks]] |- style="height:6em;" ! scope="row" | [[3rd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|3rd]] | {{dts|25 April}}<br/>–<br/>{{dts|10 May 1905}} | London, United Kingdom | 51 | * [[Leonid Krasin]] * [[Vladimir Lenin]] * Dmitry Postolovsky * [[Alexei Rykov]] | scope="col" style="background-color:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"| | [[Bolsheviks]] |- style="height:6em;" ! scope="row" | [[4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|4th]] | {{dts|10 April}}<br/>–<br/>{{dts|25 April 1906}} | [[Stockholm]], Sweden | 112 | * [[Boris Bakhmeteff]] * Leon Goldman * Vasily Denitsky * Pavel Kolokolnikov * Leonid Krasin * Viktor Krokhmal * Natalya Baranskaya * Vladimir Rozanov * Alexei Rykov * [[Lev Khinchuk]] | scope="col" style="background-color:green; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"| | Mensheviks |- style="height:6em;" ! scope="row" | [[5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|5th]] | {{dts|13 May}}<br/>–<br/>{{dts|1 June 1907}} | London, United Kingdom | 338 | * [[Jūlijs Daniševskis]] * [[Iosif Dubrovinsky]] * [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]] * Joseph Goldenberg * Joseph Iusiv * [[Aleksandr Martynov (Russian politician)|Aleksandr Martynov]] * [[Viktor Nogin]] * [[Nikolai Rozhkov]] * [[Ivan Teodorovich]] * [[Adolf Warski]] * [[Noe Zhordania]] | scope="col" style="background-color:{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"| | Bolsheviks |}

== Electoral history == === Legislative elections === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:95%" |- |+ [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|State Duma]] |- ! Year ! Votes ! % ! Seat(s) ! +/– ! Leader |- !align=center| [[1906 Russian legislative election|1906]] |align=center| Unknown (3rd) |align=center| 3.8 | {{composition bar|18|478|hex=#CE0000}} |align=center| ''New'' |rowspan=4 style="text-align:center;" |[[Julius Martov]] |- !align=center| [[January 1907 Russian legislative election|Jan, 1907]] |align=center| Unknown (3rd) |align=center| 12.5 |{{composition bar|65|518|hex=#CE0000}} |align=center| {{increase}} 47 |- !align=center| [[October 1907 Russian legislative election|Oct, 1907]] |align=center| Unknown (4th) |align=center| 3.7 |{{composition bar|19|442|hex=#CE0000}} |align=center| {{decrease}} 46 |- !align=center| [[1912 Russian legislative election|1912]] |align=center| Unknown (4th) |align=center| 3.3 |{{composition bar|14|442|hex=#CE0000}} |align=center| {{decrease}} 5 |}

== See also == * {{section link|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War|Non-Bolshevik political parties}} * [[Factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] * [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]] * ''[[Zreniye]]''

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

{{CPSU Congresses}} {{Russian Revolution 1917}} {{Ukrainian Bolshevik Revolution}} {{Left-wing parties in Ukraine}} {{Authority control}}

[[Category:Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] [[Category:1898 establishments in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1918 disestablishments in Russia]] [[Category:Mensheviks]] [[Category:Old Bolsheviks]] [[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1918]] [[Category:Political parties established in 1898]] [[Category:Organizations of the Russian Revolution of 1905]]